Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC – Today, the Biden administration’s White House Council on Environmental Quality released a notice of proposed rulemaking, the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule, to update rules that guide federal decision making under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
This rulemaking is part of a longer process, which was initiated with Phase 1 last spring. It aims to undo Trump-era attacks on the bedrock environmental protection and restore certainty, efficiency, and transparency to the environmental review process by ensuring reviews fully and accurately consider the direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of proposed projects and that affected communities are consulted as early as possible.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous released the following statement:
“As we approach the one year anniversary of passage of the biggest investment in climate action in history amid a deadly global heat wave, the task before us is to rapidly accelerate the buildout of clean energy without doing further harm to communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of fossil fuel pollution and climate chaos. Those who wish to weaken our environmental protections on behalf of corporate polluters present a false choice between environmental justice and meeting our energy needs. The truth is through this commonsense reform, we can bring abundant clean energy resources online without sacrificing communities or rubber stamping more fossil fuels. We are encouraged that the Biden administration has taken this step toward ensuring certainty and transparency in the NEPA process and we urge them to act quickly to finalize the strongest rule possible to build a just clean energy future.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.